"When thou passest through the waters..."

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. ~ (Isiah 43: 2 KJV) ~

​Have you ever had “one of those days”?  One of our volunteers recently had “one of those days”…one that he hopes to never experience again!
 
If you’ve ever lived in a developing country, then you likely know how challenging travel can be.  Dry, dusty, bumpy (very bumpy) gravel roads, weather; rain turns those gravel roads into a sloppy, slippery mess and the dust can cause “whiteout” conditions, road blocks (often used as a form of protest), fuel (gasoline and diesel) shortages, waiting for hours for a taxi to fill up before finally leaving for your destination,` and other obstacles can make travel (even local travel) difficult, sometimes impossible.  It’s probably one of the biggest challenges that we face here in Bolivia and is something that people who move here from developed countries often find to be shocking and stressful.
 
Here in Bolivia, while there are many back roads (often these “roads” can be likened to two tracks), there is generally only one “good” road to get from city to city, town to town, community to community, and even the “good” roads are ridden with potholes (think crater size potholes; entire sections of the pavement missing size potholes).  Additionally, there are MANY rivers that cross the roads, the majority of which do not have bridges.   The only way to cross these rivers is to drive through them.  During the dry season, or even if it’s just been a good stretch without rain, most of these rivers are relatively easy to drive through and don’t pose any major risks.  But when the rivers are full, and they can become full and rapidly moving VERY quickly and unexpectedly, they can be incredibly dangerous, destructive, and sometimes deadly.
 
Tigre (“tee-grey”) is a community that is located about 2.5 hours northwest of the Eben-Ezer campus.  It is a very small, jungle community with no running water, no internet signal, no gas station or markets.  There are about 200 people living in Tigre, a community that, with its beautiful landscape juxtaposed with incredibly harsh living conditions, exemplifies the struggle of survival that is reality for many here in Bolivia.
 
One of our goals over the past several years has been to support the small church (3-4 members) in Tigre by visiting regularly and helping to share the Gospel with the community.  As part of this effort, last year we were able to station one volunteer from Eben-Ezer, along with two young men from Quebrada Leon, a project in Santa Cruz, Bolivia that trains medical missionaries, in Tigre for several months.  While there, they helped build a small, simple house that would serve as lodging for future missionaries serving in the community.  They also helped some of the residents address some sanitation issues along with doing home visits in the evenings to get to know folks and establish trust.  This year, 2025, Quebrada Leon committed to send two of their student missionaries to live and serve in Tigre for the year.  Before heading to their final destination, these two young men stopped at Eben-Ezer for a couple of weeks and helped with a project here.  It was early-January and rainy season was in full-swing when it was finally time for them to head to Tigre.  One of our volunteers (we will call him “Joe”) was asked to drive them there and he agreed to do so. 

Photos: 1. The missionary house built by volunteer missionaries in Tigre; 2. A group of missionaries in front of the church in Tigre;
​ 3. The student missionaries and a couple of church members in Tigre

​Joe and his family have served at Eben-Ezer for several years and have always demonstrated incredible integrity and commitment to serving God and taking care of the resources that He provides.  It is a value that we hold at Eben-Ezer and one that these two faithful servants espouse, as well.  For them, using the schools’ resources, including vehicles, is considered to be a responsibility and not one to take lightly.  They recognize the sacrifice that others have made in order to send the funds used to purchase everything we have.
 
It was a Sunday morning and Joe wanted to leave at 5am, early enough to get the missionaries to Tigre and return to Eben-Ezer in order to beat the rain (it was forecasted to rain later in the day).  This would minimize the risk of rising rivers and also give him most of the day to continue working around campus.  Since it was during the summer break, most of our volunteers were off-campus and there were only a few left here to carry the load of keeping  the place in order (living in the jungle means consistent work keeping the jungle from growing up and overtaking campus).
 
Joe, two of his sons (6 and 20 yrs. old), and the two student missionaries had an uneventful trip to Tigre, but shortly after arriving it started to rain.  There are approximately 50 rivers between Eben-Ezer and Tigre and none of them have bridges.  Most of them are relatively small, but there are several that can get extremely full and become dangerous to cross very quickly.  Joe and his sons wasted no time getting back on the road to return to Eben-Ezer.  A while into their trip, they arrived at one of the larger rivers that was quickly rising.  Having many years of experience crossing rivers, Joe felt like he had made it just in time to safely cross and started driving through.  Soon after, it became apparent that the river was deeper than he had realized and too deep to continue driving and it was at that moment that the truck shut off.  They tried repeatedly to get it started, but with no success and suddenly found themselves in a dire situation; in the middle of nowhere, with no phone signal, no shelter and no one to help them.  
 
With the river continuing to rise, it was almost guaranteed that the truck would end up getting swept down the river.  It was already nearly covered with water and the inside was filling up fast.  The fear of losing the truck, not having anyone to help or any way to call for help and the overwhelming sense of responsibility for what was happening was weighing heavy on Joe and he did the only thing he could do, he and his boys left the truck and walked back to Tigre, an hour walk from where the truck was.  They could not find anyone in Tigre to help them (not many folks there have vehicles, other than motorcycles) so they went back to the river, found a spot where they could cross and started walking the other direction, back toward campus, to try and find phone signal.  Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for phone signal to be non-existent in this region of the country and on that day, even in the sporadic areas along that route where there might be signal…there was none.  They were there, alone, afraid, hungry (they had not brought any food or money with them since this was supposed to be a quick trip) with no way of contacting anyone.  They decided to go back to where the truck was to pray.  

Photos: These are not pictures of our truck, these were found online, but Joe said that they do give a realistic picture of what our truck looked like at different stages of the day during this ordeal.  By the end, our truck was almost completely submerged.  Water covered the entire windshield and was pouring in through the windows. 

​Meanwhile, Joe’s wife (“Sue”) was back on campus and was starting to get very concerned.  When they were not back by 11am, she knew that something was wrong.  Sue had been busy during the day cooking for a group of folks who were on campus helping out and by 6 pm, she couldn’t wait any longer.  She left and started driving toward Tigre to see if she could find them.  Unfortunately, by this time several of the rivers had been rising and Sue was inexperienced at driving through rivers, so after an hour, she decided to turn back around and go back to campus. 
 
Back at the truck, it was getting dark and Joe knew they couldn’t stay where they were; the jungle is not a place you want to be stranded without shelter, especially at night.  After praying, Joe decided they needed to go back to Tigre (remember…an hour walk, one-way!) and look for help again.    When they couldn’t find anyone in Tigre to help them, they decided to keep walking to see if they could find internet signal.  After another hour of walking, they finally found signal, allowing them to send messages and make calls. By now, it was 7:30 p.m.  Joe’s young son had an injury on his foot and was unable to walk much, so Joe had been carrying him and was exhausted.  Finding signal was like a burst of energy that he needed right at that time.  Before they left the truck to go back to Tigre, Joe was feeling completely desperate.  He was crying out to God for help.  He felt responsible for what had happened to the truck and was feeling the weight of having to come up with the money to pay for the damage or a new truck.  His brave son, this precious little boy who was tired, in pain, hungry and scared, saw his dad battling with his emotions and in his innocence told him “Father, don’t give up.  Someone will come and help us.”.  What a beautiful picture of the verse found in Psalm 8:2  "Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.".  So often, especially when we are experiencing difficulties, we find ourselves wrestling with fear, doubt, anger...whatever the emotion(s) may be.  Praise the Lord for His providence, sometimes through the simple, yet profound and true words spoken through His precious children.  The words of his son gave Joe the motivation to go back to Tigre to look for help or signal and finding the signal gave him the boost he needed to walk two hours back to the truck.  He had talked to Sue and told her what was going on and she was able to get him in contact with another Eben-Ezer volunteer who left immediately to go help; finally, Joe knew that help was on the way!
 
When they arrived back at the truck a couple of people happened to come along.  They tried to help, but without the right equipment, they were unable to get the truck to move.  Miraculously, the truck did not get swept away, we know this was a miracle because there was nothing (that we can see, anyway) holding it there.  It was midnight when our second volunteer finally arrived.  Joe said that when he saw the headlights coming, he felt such an incredible sense of relief.  Finally, someone who could help!  Although it was completely submerged at this point, they were able to pull the truck out of the river.  After a very long, tedious drive on wet, bumpy roads and towing the truck through still more rivers, the crew finally arrived back to Eben-Ezer at 6:00 a.m., over 24 hours after they had set out what was supposed to be a 5/5.5-hour trip.
 
Right away Joe and several others started working on the truck. They gutted the inside to clean and dry everything.  They determined that the computer would either need to be fixed or replaced, so they  sent it that day to La Paz to someone there who could help coordinate that.  God provided the funds for a new computer, but unfortunately it still didn’t work.  It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions and in the weeks following this terrible ordeal, Joe lost many nights sleep wrestling with guilt and the heaviness of not knowing how he would pay for everything.  
 
Despite the efforts of the crew on campus, they were unable to get the truck running again and ended up taking it to the mechanic where it stayed for about 2 months. While there, the mechanic found that there was sand everywhere inside, including all throughout the engine.  It was caked into the pistons; it was in the area where the engine connects to the transmission…it was everywhere.  If you know anything about mechanics, you know that sand is not a friend to engines.  It can cause an incredible amount of damage, and eventually can lead to engine failure.  We are grateful to the mechanic for his effort to clean the truck so thoroughly, something that took skill and patience to do.  Thankfully, the truck is back up and running again.  There are a few things that are still not completely working right, and, unfortunately, the air conditioning is one of them.  While air conditioning is obviously not a requirement for a vehicle to run, here in the hot, humid, often rainy Amazon jungle, it can be a necessity for health and safety purposes, especially if it is raining and we cannot have the windows down.  Despite the issues that still need to get fixed, we are grateful to God for providing the way He did throughout this entire situation.  Nobody was hurt (or worse), the truck did not get swept down the river, He provided the funds needed to get the truck fixed and it is back in working condition again.

Photos: 1-4 show the condition of the truck inside and the motor and the efforts of the team to dry, clean and fix what they could.
Photos: 5 and 6 show the struggle to get even a motorcycle across a river that has filled up.  The power of the current can take an entire vehicle downstream in an instant.

Joe’s experience with the truck was a literal example of God’s promise: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”.  Isn’t it beautiful that we can all claim this promise no matter the trial or tribulation we are experiencing.  God will always help us; we only have to call on Him.

In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears…He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. ~ Psalm 18: 6,16 KJV ~